That’s how much public money Kenney has sunk into the Keystone XL (KXL) pipeline project that will move oil from Hardisty, Alberta, to Steele City, Nebraska, and give Alberta an improved route to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

The project was killed by the Obama administration in 2015 for environmental reasons but resurrected by Trump for economic reasons. It is under threat once again. The Joe Biden campaign acknowledged this week the multi-billion project would be scrapped if Biden wins the presidential election in November.

“Biden strongly opposed the Keystone pipeline in the last administration,” said Biden’s campaign policy director, Stef Feldman, “and will proudly stand in the Roosevelt Room again as president and stop it for good by rescinding the Keystone XL pipeline permit.”

After hearing the news, Kenney acknowledged he knew it was something of a gamble when announcing in March his government was spending $1.5-billion to kick start construction of the stalled project in April. And then putting up $6 billion in loan guarantees next year.

“We entered into this, eyes wide open, recognizing that there was of course a political risk,” said Kenney on Wednesday.

He is now deploying a three-part strategy to save the pipeline project if Biden should win the November election: organize allies; threaten legal action; and create “facts on the ground.”

Kenney is appealing for help from pro-pipeline American governors as well as from American unionized workers building the pipeline.

And “creating facts on the ground” is another way of saying he wants to get as much of the pipeline constructed between now and the November election.

“I cannot imagine that a U.S. president eight months from now, nine months from now, would require that thousands of miles of pipe be pulled out of the ground by the union workers who are now employed creating that project,” says Kenney.

He’s probably also hoping that what sounds like a firm election promise today will prove to be more elastic tomorrow once Biden sees how much money and jobs the pipeline will mean to the U.S.

‘“We would fully expect any United States’ president, regardless of party or platform, to tread very carefully before undermining the single most important bilateral economic project in which a Canadian company and a Canadian government are investing massively to create jobs in the United States as well as in Canada,” said Kenney.

A number of legal experts have said a President Biden would have absolute authority to revoke the Presidential Permit for KXL previously approved by President Trump. And as University of Alberta economist Andrew Leach pointed out this week, under article 3 of the permit, KXL would have “no claim for damages.”

In the background is Alberta’s official opposition trying to stifle its schadenfreude, saying, in so many words, “I told you so.”

NDP leader Rachel Notley did warn Kenney in March that he was taking a big risk by putting $1.5 billion into a project that is not under Canadian control.

“The project always came with significant political and legal risk,” said Notley this week. “Premier Kenney has already committed $1.5 billion dollars to this project. And if the project fails, a further $6 billion will be paid by Albertans – for nothing. That’s why we asked for details of the deal and all economic and risk analyses when the Premier and his UCP Government committed up to $7.5 billion to the project.”

Kenney said this week Alberta would have time after the November presidential election to decide whether to go ahead with the $6-billion loan guarantee. But Kenney knows he’s in a tough spot.

He tried to liken his $1.5-billion stake in the KXL pipeline to the Liberal government’s $4.5-billion purchase of the Trans Mountain pipeline and its promise to spend another $7 billion or so to triple the pipeline’s capacity.

However, as critics keep pointing out, the Canadian government has complete and final jurisdiction over the Trans Mountain pipeline. Keystone’s fate lies with the Americans.

And so, now, does Kenney’s credibility when it comes to getting pipelines built — one of his key election promises in last year’s provincial election.

Kenney is now up to his neck in the American presidential election. We’ll know in November if he’s in over his head.

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